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Fisher died aged 60 on Dec. 27, four days after she became
unresponsive on a flight from London to Los Angeles and was
rushed to a hospital.
Fisher was a mental health advocate who spoke about her
struggles with bipolar disorder and cocaine addiction. Aside
from her film work, she was also popular as a writer and
humorist and her memoir "The Princess Diarist" was released a
few weeks before she died.
The Los Angeles County Coroner's Office conducted an examination
of her body on Dec. 30 and has since found she died of sleep
apnea and "other undetermined factors," the coroner's statement
said.
Fisher also had atherosclerotic heart disease and had used
drugs, the statement said, but noted the significance of these
factors in relation to her demise had not been ascertained.
A watch commander for the coroner's office declined to provide
additional details on the findings, referring questions to a
representative who was not immediately available.
Carrie Fisher came from a Hollywood family, as the daughter of
actor Debbie Reynolds and singer Eddie Fisher.
The day after Carrie Fisher died, Reynolds, who starred in
Hollywood musicals such as "Singin' in the Rain," suffered a
stroke and died, aged 84. Eddie Fisher died in 2010.
Born in Beverly Hills, Carrie Fisher got her show business start
at age 12 in her mother's Las Vegas nightclub act. She made her
film debut as a teenager in 1975 comedy "Shampoo," two years
before her breakthrough in the first "Star Wars" movie.
Fisher reprised the role in later "Star Wars" sequels, gaining
sex symbol status in "Return of the Jedi" in 1983 when her Leia
character wore a metallic gold bikini while enslaved by the
diabolical Jabba the Hutt.
In the 2015 film "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," also known as
"Episode VII" of the franchise, she appeared again as Leia, who
by then had become an astute military general.
After undergoing treatment in the mid-1980s for cocaine
addiction, Fisher wrote the bestselling novel "Postcards from
the Edge," about a drug-abusing actress forced to move in with
her mother. The book was later adapted into a film starring
Meryl Streep and Shirley MacLaine.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Leslie Adler and Sam
Holmes)
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